These 30 Days: Photographs

My grandfather was an amazing photographer. And so, my childhood is recorded in amazing photographs, first in black and white and then in color, but all taken with a film Pentax and a 35mm lens. But he photographed more than just family. I remember watching him set up his camera in the crook of a tree on or a stone wall to photograph waterfalls, birds coming to his feeder, mountain vistas, amazing things. But also somethings that were quietly breathtaking too: the playing cards my grandmother kept on the kitchen table with a stack of nickles so she could bet on solitaire games or one of his sons looking up the chimney on Christmas Eve.

I can trace my passion for photography to Poppy. But I think that it’s more than capturing a sharp image, it’s preserving a scene and a moment in time and keeping it safe. It’s that moment that makes the photograph a keeper. And I’m learning to see these moments and to have the technical expertise to capture it.

In the last months, I’ve purchased a nice DSLR and taken a basic photography class at the Charleston Center for Photography. But I know that I won’t become a good photographer without simply taking pictures, looking at the world through my camera, and analyzing the photos I’ve taken.

So this month, I will take a picture each day, and I will post it here along with some notes about how it was shot and the thoughts I have. I promise not to overload you with shots of the kids, although I’m sure they will be in the mix. I hope that at the end of the month, I’ll have learned more about what I’m shooting and how I do it. I hope too, to tap into the photography genes I should have inherited.